


Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me (and then Bones cold-cocked him)

by DetectiveSpaceCore



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Afterlife, Canon Temporary Character Death, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Implied Mcspirk Prime, Star Trek: Into Darkness Spoilers, implied mcspirk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:49:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27171319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DetectiveSpaceCore/pseuds/DetectiveSpaceCore
Summary: Alternate title: Bones Prime Slam Dunks AOS Kirk Out Of The Afterlife
Comments: 10
Kudos: 31





	Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me (and then Bones cold-cocked him)

Jim wakes up - but when was he asleep? And why is he not laying down, but standing up? And where is this?

Jim opens his eyes in a strange place with a wall of confusion looming over him, but he is not afraid. He gazes at the scenery, such as it is (strange peach-colored mist obscures everything, but it almost looks like the endless corn fields of Iowa) in a dreamlike haze. Idly, he wonders how he got here. Is this a dream? A hallucination? Is he drugged? Has been kidnapped away from the landing party again?

Frowning, he tries to remember what he was doing before he arrived here. Is he merely asleep? That seems wrong, somehow. Was he knocked out? No, but he knocked Scotty out, for some reason. He remembers the ship, and danger, and arguing, and -

Oh.

He remembers realigning the warp core, and... Spock crying? That can't be right, but...

He's dead.

Or... well, _dying_. He did contract fatal radiation poisoning, and he certainly doesn't believe in an afterlife. This is probably his brain's last desperate attempt to make sense of his situation. Might as well enjoy it while it lasts.

He starts to wander the fields, aimless. He doesn't truly expect to find a change of scenery (why would his dying brain supply one?) but movement feels more right than standing still. So finding a clearing (in a cornfield???) with a table set up with a simple tea service is a surprise, but not a shock. No one is seated at the table, but the teapot is still hot and there are varying amounts of tea and rings left in the bottom of the cups, as though someone had just been there. The chairs are also askew, as though the participants had left without bothering to clean up or even push in the chairs. Perhaps they were in a hurry?

He hears a distant shout of "There he is!" and turns to face the sound. He wonders who-

A figure bursts out of the nearby corn stalks, startling him. Jim feels part of his artificial, distant calm evaporate as he recognizes the figure. But why does he look so... old?

"Bones?!"

As the grumbling figure approaches him, his remaining calm rapidly dwindles and he starts to panic.

“Dumbass! Idiot! It’s bad enough that I had to chase these two throughout time and space and patch them up!” Bones growls, still about 20 meters distant.

Jim keeps half an ear trained on the man’s diatribe while looking him over. This is Bones, but… off. This man talks like Bones, and moves like Bones, and gestures like Bones, but it’s like someone took the _concept_ of the man and got all of the details just slightly wrong.

“-i told that ratty old bastard that it was a suicide mission, but _Nooooooo!_ No one listens-”

He’s old, for one, but that could easily be explained.

“-and then there was that poor kid they had in charge of the station’s medbay I SWEAR-”

His hair is shoulder-length and white

“-but at least the Klingons weren’t assholes that time.”

(Bones never grows his hair out; he hates the feel of it against his face and neck),

“-kidnapped me straight outta the dance club, who DOES that?!”

he has a bushy white beard to match

“He’s actually pretty adorable with kids, honestly-”

(Bones hates having anything more than stubble, and even that gets shaved regularly),

“-damned imbecile nearly fell off the goddamned mountain on out date night-”

he’s short in a way that can’t be explained by simple age, and he stands tall, with no stooped shoulders

“Last time he shoved his soul into my head and that was a trip, let me tell you-”

(Bones hunches a lot, but even then he’s a good 4 inches taller than this man),

“-and then the dumbass goes and WAKES HIS ASS UP 30 GODDAMNED YEARS EARLY-”

and his eyes are a clear, cool blue

“-and I just had to go throw Chris out this morning could y’all give me a break?”

(not the wild hazel that can be pure green or pure brown, depending on the light).

“-isn’t supposed to be a revolving door for fuck’s sake!”

And he walks with the confidence of a man who is ready to throw down with the devil himself, which honestly would be a massive turn on if it didn’t scare the shit out of Jim to see this… this _imitation_ walking towards him like that.

“-and then YOU show up instead of the pointy-eared baby, which of _course_ that would happen-”

But then he catches a glimpse of one of the people behind the man grumbling at him, and he begins to calm down. Long, flowing black robes with swirling silver embroidery. Silver hair in a bowl cut. Pointed ears and sharp eyebrows. He knows that Vulcan. Ambassador Spock smiles slightly, his eyes crinkling at the corners, and he lifts a hand in greeting, displaying the ta’al.

“Hi, Ambassador Spock!” he calls cheerfully, waving slightly while leaning around Bones.

Of course, this must be Ambassador Spock’s Bones. Admiral? He thinks he saw that in the meld memories. Admiral McCoy. Why would his brain supply simulacra of _his_ Bones and _his_ Spock? He knows they’re still alive and well- relatively well- they’re _alive_ on the ship. His slowly dying mind must have decided to show him these two instead, since he remembers Ambassador Spock being terribly lonely in his life in Jim’s universe. And behind Ambassador Spock, is that-

“None of that, now!” Admiral McCoy barks, looping his arm under Jim’s and grasping the back of Jim’s neck. Using the grip, he bodily turns Jim around, wrenching his right arm behind his back and preventing him from moving his head as Admiral McCoy marches him forward.

“Bye, Ambassador Spock!” Jim calls bemusedly, waving again.

* * *

_Leonard Mccoy stares at the bodybag that he’s just unzipped, which contains the corpse of his best friend._

_Jim is dead._

_Leonard sits down heavily and drops his head into his hands._

_Jim is DEAD and he wasn’t there. At least Spock was so Jim didn’t die alone, but oh god JIM. Jim is dead and he can’t fix this Jim died in terrible agony and he wasn’t there he wasn’t there for Jim he promised he would be that he would ALWAYS be there and he wasn’t and-_

_A soft trill in the silent room disrupts his spiraling thoughts, and he half-turns to thumb the comm and tell whoever’s on the other side to fuck off when he realizes that it wasn’t the comm that made that noise. It was the tribble on his desk. The poor thing died a few weeks ago and so he’d used it as an experiment to see how Harrison’s super-blood reacted to dead cell tissue-_

_Wait._

_The… dead tribble… just made a noise?_

_Leonard stares at the small furry sphere uncomprehendingly for several long seconds, during which it gently expands and contracts slightly, filter feeding and purring contently._

_Jim’s not a tribble, but… Leonard can make this work. He just needs a sample of Harrison’s blood, but he used the last sample on the tribble. They don’t have Harrison in custody yet, but Spock’s hunting him down, so they will._

_Spock’s hunting him down. Spock, who was **crying** when he brought Jim’s body in. Shit._

_Leonard scrambles out of the room and waylays the nearest nurse. “Get me a cyropod!”_

_He scans the room. “ **UHURA!** ” he roars, watching as she jumps and turns her bloodshot, weeping gaze towards him. “Call Spock, tell him not to kill that bastard. If he can get Harrison back here, I think I can save Jim.”_

_There’s absolute silence in the room for a split second after he says that, but he doesn’t notice. He’s already turned back around and is running towards the labs to begin setting up what he’ll need._

* * *

Jim is cold. He can’t see his breath, and neither Admiral McCoy nor the surroundings seem to be affected any, so he must be close to passing away entirely. He’s surprisingly calm about that, he thinks. He wonders if it’s because he accepted it when he passed out in the corridor, or if it’s _because_ he’s passed out in the corridor.

Admiral McCoy stops them at the edge of a cliff. It looks almost like the quarry shipyards in Riverside, which Jim supposes is appropriate. There’s more of the peach-colored mist obscuring the bottom of the cliffs and extending out to the horizon, making it look like the end of the world. _Definitely_ appropriate, then. Admiral McCoy sighs deeply, slumping slightly, then he releases his hold on Jim’s neck and spins Jim around to face him. He keeps a firm, comforting grip on Jim’s upper arm.

“How much of that rant did you actually hear, kid?” Bones asks, looking… uncomfortable? Guilty? It’s getting hard to focus, and Jim can’t quite read this man like he can read his Bones.

“...Not much really,” Jim admits, “I was mostly focusing on panicking about you showing up.”

Admiral McCoy gives him an odd look at that. “You _do_ know I’m not your Bones, right?”

Jim smiles wanly. “Yeah, if your… honestly, if your entire appearance didn’t give that away, the fact that you willingly called _yourself_ ‘Bones’ would’ve, _Admiral_ McCoy.”

The man snorts at that. “Lord, I hate that they managed to promote me that high. Yeah, alright, just checking, kid. Now, you’re probably not going to remember this, but my counterpart down there is working real hard to bring you back, and you only get ONE second chance at this. If you show back up here before at least 50 years have passed, I’ll find a way to kick you out of the afterlife and make you haunt your farmhouse.”

Jim’s smile grows a little brighter at that, how even this odd alternate (original? fuck, he hates time travel) version of Bones delivers care with threats. “You know I’d do it again in a heartbeat, right? I won’t let innocents and my crew die for me.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less, kid. Just _learn_ from this and don’t put yourself back in this situation next time, okay?”

“Sure, Bones.”

Jim’s warming back up now, and his chest feels strangely heavy. He feels like he’s struggling for air, despite the fact that he doesn’t seem to need to breathe here? He wonders how much longer it’ll be until this vision ends. He’s sorry he won’t be able to keep his promise to Admiral McCoy, even if he IS just a figment of Jim’s decaying mind.

“I hope Spock and Bones will be alright,” he murmurs. “I didn’t even get to say goodbye to Bones, and that’s gonna tear him up.”

“Well, good news kid!” Admiral McCoy says, his smile sharp and slightly maniac. “You can apologize to him in just a bit!”

“Wha-”

And then Jim is bodily picked up and thrown downwards off the cliff. He watches the figure still on the cliff recede until he’s enveloped by mist, and then by darkness.

He drifts.

.

.

.

The pressure builds in his chest.

Is this it?

.

.

.

The pressure is burning now, the pain almost as bad as it was when he passed out.

There’s a strange murmur in the darkness, that resolves to a tinny, faraway phrase: _Come on, kid, you’ve gotta try!_

Well, it’s not like it could make things any worse. Jim opens his mouth, struggles, gasps in one short painful breath, and it feels glorious. He keeps fighting to breathe, pulling in another breath, and another, and keeps doing it until the pressure and burning recede. Once the pain is gone, he knows no more.

* * *

_“Come on, Jim.” Leonard whispers, watching the monitors._

_They’ve just taken Jim’s body off of life support. His heart is beating on its own, but he hasn’t started breathing yet. If he doesn’t start, they’ll have to let him die._

_For good, this time._

_“Jim, please breathe.”_

_Nothing. The monitors turn yellow, though no alarms go off. There’s nothing to be done if this fails._

_“Jim, **please**. Please come back. Please don’t do this to me.”_

_Still nothing. Leonard can feel his eyes start to water and his chest start to clench in panic._

_“Jim, you’ve fought every day of your damned life, don’t you dare give up now. Breathe, damnit! Come on, kid, you’ve got to try!”_

_He watches the monitors fiercely, refusing to look at Jim’s body. He won’t do this again, he can’t. He won’t give up until the monitor shows a flatline, but…_

_There!_

_There’s a slight wobble in the brainwave graph. And…_

_**Gasp!** _

_Jim’s breathing sounds horrible, his body weakly jerking as he gasps like a drowning man. Leonard scrambles to start the O₂ to Jim’s mask and waits anxiously as Jim’s breathing stabilizes, then steadies, then softens to the almost-snore he always has when in a mask. Leonard looks at the monitors again, unseeing, and triggers the sound alarms. If anything happens now, someone will hear and come in. He stumbles blindly out of the room and runs into a wall of Vulcan officer._

_“Leonard? What happened? Is Jim…” Spock asks, only to be cut off when Leonard hugs him fiercely._

_“He’s breathing. On his own. And he’s got alpha waves. His brain is… it’s working, Spock. He’s still there.” Leonard sobs into his shoulder._

_For a moment, Spock is still. Leonard can feel the increase in Spock’s heartbeat, can feel the gentle pressure of Spock’s raging emotions through his physical contact with Spock._

_Then Spock either loses his battle with his emotions, or simply gives up. He folds around Leonard and they both crumple to the ground, clutching one another and sobbing brokenly in relief. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Spock whisper-chants into Leonard’s hair._

_Someone (red shirt, man is all Leonard remembers later, so probably Scotty) finds them like that, inquires worriedly about what happened, and takes the news to the rest of the crew. Leonard dimly realizes that Spock is carrying him as he succumbs to exhaustion._

_Now, they have only to wait until Jim wakes up._

* * *

Jim wakes up, but doesn’t open his eyes. He is _so_ tired. His body feels both like lead, and like he’s floating. He must be on the _good_ painkillers this time. He wonders what he did to-

Um.

He should be dead. Like, mega dead. Like, _they had to ship his body home in a lead-lined container because of all the radiation_ dead. How is he… oh, of course. Bones. Bones… must have saved him, right? His memory is a bit fuzzy, but he recalls talking to… someone? Someone who is Bones, but isn’t _his_ Bones? Someone who is… Spock’s Bones? Well, that doesn’t make any sense. He and Spock _share_ Bones, obviously.

He’s woolgathering. Must be the meds. He must have dreamt something when he was recovering, he supposes. He hears a shuffling noise to his right, and turns his head, opening his eyes, and struggles to focus on…

Bones.

He begins to smile, both because he never thought he’d see Bones again, and because Bones is wearing the _stupidest_ medical uniform he’s ever seen oh my _god_ it’s bright white and has epaulets? Where did he get that???

“Don’t be so melodramatic,” Bones quips with relief lurking in his eyes and a wry grin on his lips, “you were _barely_ dead.”

Jim’s grin widens. It’s good to be back.

* * *

_“Oh good, he woke up. Finally.” Bones grumbles. He’s sitting on the edge of a cliff, sipping Vulcan tea out of a delicate china cup._

_“Yes, and we can only hope he took your advice to heart and will not show back up here soon. Although I understand why you were in such a hurry to return him, I am mildly… disappointed that I did not get the chance to speak with him, Leonard.” Spock says, gazing at Bones._

_“Yes, why **didn't** you let us talk to him, Bones?” Jim asks._

_“Are you kidding me? If I let you hit on your alternate timeline counterpart, you’d **still** be making out and he would’ve died for real! You can make a pass at him when he dies **properly!** ”_

_Jim emits an affronted gasp. “Bones, do you truly think I would do that?!”_

_“I had to watch you hit on, and then make out with, Evil Spock With A Goatee AND your evil self. At the same time. Last week.” Bones points out._

_Ambassador Spock smiles quietly and lets the sound of his husbands’ bickering wash over him. He is glad that his alternate counterpart will have more time with his Captain. He can wait to speak to them again._

_He has all the time in the world, and it is filled with tomorrows._

**Author's Note:**

> Khan was NOT in Into Darkness. I am NOT looking. I DO NOT see him.


End file.
